Grandfather's Clock
by Ember Nickel
Summary: Forgotten Family Ties Competition: Hugo keeps himself busy at the Burrow. He keeps Arthur busy, too.


"Give that back! It's mine!"

"Now hold on, just a minute—"

"_Please_ give it back to me!"

"I will, I will. I just want to look at it, here.

"But you _said—_"

"Boys?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and stuck her head into the living room. Her son and father-in-law were seated on the floor, the latter carefully inspecting the toy wind-up car that Hugo had brought along to the Burrow.

Arthur blushed. "Right. Sorry. Here you are," he said, carefully placing the car in Hugo's hands.

"See? This is how it works," said Hugo, winding it up and letting it zoom across the floor.

"But I _don't_ see," Arthur whined.

Scurrying across the room and pouncing on the car before his grandfather could beat him to the punch, Hugo said, "It's like a real car, cause it...it goes."

"A real car? Does it make smoke come out of the back when it goes?"

Hugo, still clenching the car in his fist, scooted it rapidly back and forth across the floor. "No," he was forced to conclude, "_but_...it doesn't go _really_ fast. Prob'ly if it did, then there would be smoke."

"Do people sit inside of it?"

"No," Hugo said disdainfully, "cause it's _small_."

"Maybe little creatures could sit inside of it."

"Like bugs? I've run bugs over with this," Hugo beamed. "I mean...it ran itself over. I just let it go and it squished 'em."

"Well done," Arthur said with a straight face.

"Grandpa?"

"Yes?"

"Is it true that real cars can fly? Daddy says that some of them do, but Mum says that they don't. And I've never seen a car fly before."

Arthur laughed—fortunately for him, Hugo was a bit too young to pick up on his blush. "It would take a lot of magic for a real car to be able to fly." Quickly changing the subject, he asked, "What about your car? Does it fly?"

Hugo cautiously weighed it in his hands. "It would if I threw it."

"I don't think that's a very good idea."

Hugo helplessly sat down and gave it the tiniest twist, watching it whizz a tiny distance. Not into Arthur's reach.

"So maybe it doesn't work like a real car. How do you think it works?"

"Rosie says it's like a clock."

"A clock, eh?" Arthur said. "Hmm. Let's have a look at our clock, shall we?"

"Okay," Hugo shrugged.

They carefully made their way across the room (avoiding Rose, who was playing on the staircases like a manic Crup), and paused to inspect the clock. "Well, well," said Arthur. "Does it look like a car?"

Hugo stared at it for a few moments, then rubbed his hand along the wooden side. "No," he decided, "it doesn't have any wheels, it isn't gonna go anywhere."

Arthur chuckled. "Good point! But does it wind up?"

Hugo glanced at it once more. "You'd have to pick it up to get at the part on the bottom. But I bet it's probably really heavy."

"Oho?" said Arthur, taking out his wand and casting a Featherweight Charm on the clock. Mostly feigning a grunt, he lifted the clock up off the ground. "Do you see anything underneath?"

Hugo bent down, and as he did, Arthur moved the clock sideways so it wouldn't land on Hugo were he to drop it or accidentally release the charm. "Just a lot of dust."

"Oh, be quiet and don't tell your grandmother," Arthur cackled, setting the clock back down once Hugo had stood up. "She'll have what's left of my hair. But you don't think it winds up like your car does, huh?"

"No," Hugo declared, crossing his arms.

"And why not?"

"'Cause it's a magic clock."

"Well, there we have it," Arthur threw up his hands. "It's a magic clock. But that doesn't explain how yours works, does it?"

Hugo did not answer; he was instead staring at the clock at his own eye level, where it was merely a solid wood prism. "What's inside the box of it?"

"What do you think?"

Hugo knocked on it, then rubbed his knuckles. "I dunno. Magic wands?"

"I think it's probably something like the inside of your car."

"Uh-uh," Hugo said, "cause the car isn't magic, and your clock is."

"All right, I'll tell you. It's just a big box of wood. There's nothing in there."

"Nothing?" Hugo squinted. "Then where's all the magic come in?"

"It's all up top. Up there."

"Can I see it?"

"It's all inside."

"Hmm," said Hugo, pacing back to view the clock from farther away. "It's big and tall, and it's got magic up top and wood down on the bottom part. Is it like a real big magic wand?"

Arthur laughed. "A little bit."

"Are you just about ready to go?" Ron called from the kitchen.

"Yeah," said Hugo.

"You'd better hurry up before your daughter falls off the stairs," said Arthur.

"I'm not gonna fall off the stairs," Rose yelled as she jumped off of the second step. "James says he can make it from the sixth step and probably, by the next time we're both here, I will too."

Ron and Hermione caught each other's eyes and smirked.

"Hugo, do you have your car?" said Ron.

Wildly, Hugo looked about, while Arthur made his way over to the corner of the room and retrieved the toy. "Looking for this?"

"_Hey_," said Hugo, "give it _back_, we have to go."

"Here you are," said Arthur, once again handing it over.

"It's smart of you to remember to have Hugo bring toys," Hermione whispered to Ron. "I don't know how he'd manage to stay occupied."


End file.
